Customer Reviews

Earthlings: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The review of this film calls it "Over the Top"...that doesn't begin to do it justice. This is the best documentary I have seen in years....really wierd and really hilarious. I love the guy who lost his girl because he "wasn't a good enough Klingon", hah. These people take this really serious.

It left me with a strange feeling...I'm not sure whether to admire their inspiration or run like hell. Definitely worth 20 bucks.

TM

I'm very interested in the Klingon language but I was a bit nonplussed by this documentary. The topic was promising and the interviews interesting. However the wacky production and weak story disappointed me.

Specifically, I was annoyed by the director's decision to film all of the interviews with strange camera effects or distortion. It's as if he thought the subjects were too ugly to show as they are. If a film uses camera effects a few times for artistic effect, that's fine, but there wasn't a single unfiltered shot in the movie, and it was extremely distracting. I also disliked the long musical interludes between chapters, which didn't seem to add anything to the film.

The editing and structure of the film was haphazard. While there were a few places where interviews were nicely counterpoised to make an editorial or dramatic point, for the most part it just felt like a series of disjointed interviews. The subject of the film was ostensibly the qep'a' (an annual conference for Klingon language aficionados), but there were only a few short pieces of footage of the qep'a' itself. Interviewees told stories about going to restaurants and trying to communicate with waiters in Klingon: why didn't we see this in the film?

I'd still recommend this documentary if you are very interested in the Klingon language or quirky human stories, but there are much better films out there.

I've seen this movie about four times now, and I'm happy to be able to finally own a copy of the DVD. I am Michael, one of the stars of EARTHLINGS. Please buy this movie and support the Klingon language.